Once-shots
by fandomsareokayiguess
Summary: The title is funny because the title of the show is once upon a time and these are oneshots.
1. Responsibility

**This is a collection of my OUAT oneshots, and **_**please**_** let me know if I should make a whole story out of any of these :) **

**Emma's back in the enchanted forest with her parents and the rest of former Storybrooke residents, and she's not taking very well to the whole "princess" thing.**

* * *

"Emma, you need to go to the meeting. You're the heir to two kingdoms. It's important!" Snow nagged

"I doubt you or David will bite it any significant amount of time before I will, so it's not like I'll ever have to rule a kingdom!" Emma countered.

Emma was impossible. She refused to wear dresses except when she wanted to, she refused to go to balls. She volunteered to be a stable girl when told she needed to take on responsibility. If this was adult Emma, maybe it was a good thing they hadn't been together during her teen years.

"Emma!" Snow just couldn't take it anymore. She would be putting Emma through a princess crash course, if you will. Princess 101.

"I'm going to go hang out with Henry by the stables. It should be him you're bringing to meetings!" He would be the one to have to take over at least two kingdoms.

Emma grabbed a jacket and walked out the door. It wasn't the red one, that one was stuck in New York. Emma looked down at her clothes. Just about as un-princessy they could get. Slightly distressed pants, a button up shirt, boots, and her jacket. It looked like she had raided David's closet, as they were all slightly too big for her. Actually that was exactly what she did. She liked her father's closet more than she liked her own, or even her mother's.

Emma walked briskly to the stables, trying to avoid being stopped. She got stopped anyways.

"Princess Emma?" A small voice asked in awe.

A little girl. She looked down. She couldn't pretend she didn't hear a little girl. Emma crouched down to her level and rested her hand on her knee.

"Emma's fine. What's up, buttercup?" She really didn't like being called "princess". She was no more than anyone else in this kingdom.

The little girl giggled. She didn't say anything but surrounded Emma in a hug that almost knocked both of them to the ground. She picked the both of and dusted the dirt off of the little girl's knees.

"Lily, don't bother the princess. Come along," a woman Emma presumed to be the little girl's mother called.

Fearing the sweet little girl may get in trouble she said "Don't worry about it! She was lovely!"

The woman nodded and said thank you. They walked away hand in hand and Emma could just overhear a conversation. "Mommy, I wanna be just like princess Emma when I grow up! She's..."

They walked to far away for Emma to listen in, but that was all she needed. Little girls were looking up to her. Maybe she did need to take on some responsibility and stop being so afraid of accepting the whole princess thing. It still was crazy to her. Being a princess. She went from orphan to mother to princess.

She diverted her path back to her parents' palace. Walking through the door she found her mother sitting on a padded chair in one of the many excessive rooms.

"Mary M- Snow- Mom, whatever. I'm sorry for being so irresponsible. The fact of the matter is that how weird this situation still is to me, I need to get used to it. I need to be ready to take over for you if I need to. To be honest, I hope I don't have to, but in case I do. Can we have a bit of a do-over?"

Emma's mother smiled at her and nodded. Snow pulled Emma into a hug. Emma sat in the chair across from the raven haired woman and looked down at her hands. They were coated in a thin layer of dirt and there was who knows what under her nails. She missed the Land Without Magic sometimes.

"Well, that meeting is coming shortly, you could sit in?" Snow suggested.

Emma agreed, although she was hesitant. She wouldn't have much to say. She knew her mother would try her best to include her, but she would rather just listen.

When the meeting starts she attempts to stand near the door and observe, but Snow insists she sit between her and Grumpy. Grumpy kept offering her mead from his flask, which she would've gladly accepted under any under circumstances. She wanted to prove herself responsible. Of course she'd talked to nearly all of them in Storybrooke, even friends with them. But she was just Emma in Storybrooke. Emma, the savior, on a good day. Here, she was Princess Emma, heir to not one, but two kingdoms.

She tried to follow the conversations, but she was lost. Every other topic she found herself thinking _I'll have to ask Mary Margaret- Snow about that _or _I'm sure David would be willing to clue me in on that_. Maybe that was good. She would have more to talk about with her parents.

The meeting felt like it droned on for hours. However, fortunately, her parents only required her opinion a few times. She didn't know nearly enough about politics in the Enchanted Forest to input any of her opinions. She could name every president back home, if you could call it that. She would take up Snow's offer. She needed to educate herself on the workings of her own kingdom. She would actually attend balls her parents threw for one reason or another. Henry enjoyed the balls; maybe she could learn to like them.

Emma found herself going to Mary Margaret and David.

She gestured towards her mother, "Teach me to be a princess," Emma kind of asked.

Snow looked at her husband and smiled. She'd been waiting for this moment forever. She'd wanted to make Emma into a princess since they all remembered. But today was the day that she would. Or tomorrow. It was getting late.

She practically tackled her daughter in a hug. She was on the verge of jumping up and down, but a few of the members of the counsel still lingered. Instead, she grabbed hold of her daughter's hands and shook them up and down.

"Princess 101. Tomorrow, bright and early."


	2. Happiness

**Rating: T (I have to put a bit of a trigger warning on this one: Mentions of abuse.)**

**Summary: Mary Margaret and David get Emma to open up about her past. **

**As always, prompts are always welcome, and thank you for reading!**

* * *

"Emma, I know you can use magic, and you should learn to do so, but from what I've seen, you can be rather powerful and you should be careful!" Snow mentioned to Emma

"Mary Margaret, I'm 30, I know right from wrong."

"I know, this is all still really new for you—for all of us, but I've seen magic corrupt beautiful, kind hearted-," Realizing Emma had left, she stopped talking.

Emma sat where Henry's castle used to be. People rarely went there anymore, and she liked to sit there and reflect. She often thought about how different life would be if she grew up in the Enchanted Forest. She wouldn't have had to deal with all the savior stuff and she wouldn't have had an awful childhood. But she would've had to be graceful and kind like her mother, and learned to sword fight and ride horses like her father. The weight of being an actual princess on her shoulders.

The real question was which fate was worse?

Mary Margaret joined Emma on the bench Emma had put in the place of Henry's castle. She put a hand on Emma's knee. Despite half assed attempts at getting Emma to look at her, Emma refused to meet her gaze.

"Emma? What's wrong?" Snow may not have had her daughter's "super power" but she could tell when her baby was upset.

"I'm having an existential crisis," Emma complained, hoping she was using the term correctly.

"About what?"

"What I would've been like if I grew up in the Enchanted Forest. How different my personality, my life, my everything would be."

"Emma, you're you!" Maybe you would've been a little more ladylike," she paused picking chocolate off the corner of Emma's mouth. "But you would've been as selfless as you are, or as stubborn, or as honest!"

Emma laughed slightly at the thought, "So I would've been blonde you?"

Mary Margaret shook her head, "I don't think so. I have a suspicion that _you_ would've been a bit of a daddy's girl"

Emma swatted her mother's shoulder playfully and laughed.

"Did I hear someone say 'Daddy's Girl'?" David asked, greeting his wife and daughter

"Your daughter's having a bit of a crisis," Snow explained. "The kind of crisis that we have regularly. Thinking about how different she would've been if she grew up in the Enchanted Forest."

David nodded. They _did_ talk about that, perhaps more often than they should. Despite how often they thought of it, they could never agree on what Emma would've been like.

"Emma? What were you like as a kid? Like Henry's age," Emma's mother asked, figuring the best way to know what her daughter would've been like is to know what she was like.

Emma looked down and gulped. Her early teen years were the last thing she wanted to talk about. Once she got out of her hellhole of teenager-dom she never talked about it again. Not even Neal when they were together in New York. But these were her parents. If she could tell anyone how shitty her teenage years were, she could tell them.

"Where should I start?" She asked, softly.

Emma was sandwiched on a bench between her parents. She could feel how happy they were that she was opening up to them. She didn't wait for her parents to tell her where to sart. She would start at her fourth foster home, when she was eleven.

"My fourth foster home was almost the worst. The sixth was. But that's later. I was no longer a naïve little girl. I was ready to be disappointed. But even after steeling myself for that, I was underwhelmed. It was a five room, two bedroom apartment. I was one of seven kids they were fostering. It was hell. Mr. and Mrs. Conelly never lifted a finger. I was the only girl, so I cooked every meal and did all the laundry. Mrs. Conelly would slap me whenever a screwed up," she paused and pointed to a crescent shaped scar above her eye that was usually covered by hair. "That's where her fingernail dug into my skin."

David thought of a joke about her cooking, but he knew it was the worst possible time to joke. Mary Margaret wanted to comfort her daughter, but she wanted to allow Emma to finish.

"That was a year and a half of hell. Neither of them worked regular jobs. Taking in fosters was how they made most of their money. They refused any of us leave except to go to school. So one day I just didn't go home after school. I slept on benches, in alleyways, anywhere I could for almost two weeks. A woman in the area noticed me and figured out rather quickly I was alone. She told mer she would give me back to the Conelly's. I begged her not to. I slept on her couch while she found a group home for me. I liked the group home well enough. Nice kids, the people running it actually care," Emma stopped, she had barely taken a breath since she started.

"By the time I was fourteen, I already trusted no one. I was stubborn and didn't care about anyone because I couldn't. My sixth home. The one before Neal. That place is why I'm so messed up. That place is why I thought it was a good idea to take the cheapest train to New York I could and steal a car, make a new identity for myself," Emma didn't continue. She vowed long ago to never tell the rest of that story. Not to anyone.

Her parents didn't pry. They were proud of her for sharing this much with them.

Emma wasn't the one crying. Her mother was. The thought of her baby in pain made her sick, and lead her to regret putting her in that tree all over again. Emma's parents hugged her the way they always did: her mother on one side and father on the other, with David taking hold of her head. Emma was happy. She never had a family before, but she had one now. And however dysfunctional and ridiculously confusing her family tree was, she had them. And she couldn't be happier.


	3. Magic

**Rating: K+ to be safe, but mainly K**

**Summary: Emma goes on a bit of a quest of her own to figure out her magical abilities**

**I'm going to try to post two chapters a week, a longer one shot and a ficlet/drabble. The next one shot will be a prompt, and speaking of such, please leave prompts for me in the reviews!**

* * *

"Gold! Or Rumplestilskin. Whatever!" Emma Swan shouted into the seemingly empty pawnshop.

The dark one peered out from behind a corner. "Gold sounds much better being shouted into my shop, don't you think?" He asked, rhetorically.

Emma didn't respond, instead she rested her hand on her hip and stared.

Gold sighed, "What are you accusing me of now, Miss Swan?"

"Nobody sent me, if that's what you're asking. I'm here on my own accord," Emma announced, figuring he thought she was there because her parents or someone else sent her. But no, this time she was here for herself. She had questions only Rumplestilskin could answer.

"Then, Dearie, what d'you want?" Rumplestilskin asked.

"Well you know that whole product of true love slash savior magic thing I've got going on? Well Regina," She paused, still alerted by the fact the Evil Queen was helping her with something potentially dangerous. "She was trying to help me figure out this thing. It's weird. My magic doesn't work the same way hers does. She doesn't know how to help me, but I need to figure it out!"

"Well, Miss Swan, My magic is far closer to Regina's on this little spectrum, so while I cannot help you with your magic, I can tell you how it works."

Emma leaned up against a glass case, making sure she wasn't going to break any of the contents within the barrier. Sighing, she asked his price. He always had one.

"All I want is if and when you do figure out your brand of magic, you tell me how. I would assume you couldn't teach me, considering differences between you and I, but I'm curious."

Emma nodded reluctantly. Gold led her to to a back room where he motioned for her to sit down. The former dark one sat across from her and pulled a book into his lap.

"You have your parents to thank for your magical abilities, as you know, but it must be more than that. If it was just that there'd be magic users running around the town everywhere, but there's not. It's just you, I, and Regina."

He opened the book carefully, as if the book might fall apart in his hands. It was written in a language Emma couldn't understand. The alphabet looked like gibberish to her. Fortunately, Rumplestilskin did understand the strange language. He waved his hand over the book, and it was translated into words Emma could read. She quickly picked out a heading that read "Magic From True Love." She pulled the book onto her lap and scanned the page. The first part was all about true love's kiss. That was her parents' problem, not hers. She would leave the kissing to them. She finally found something that may apply to her:

"_If two people's love has been tested through true love's kiss, their firstborn child may possess magical abilities. Although light magic is often seen far less powerful than the power of dark magic, a user of magic from true love can be as or more powerful than a user of dark magic. The stronger the love between their parents, the stronger the magic_

_Current wielders of said magic: Emma Swan_

_Power of magic: High-Very High_

_Knowledge of Magic: Low"_

Emma stopped reading, "Gold? Why is my name in this book?"

"The book itself is magic, Miss Swan. Although for perspective, I would suggest you look up myself or Regina in that book," Rumplestilskin suggested.

Emma flipped to the index, scanning for his or Regina's name. She came across Regina's first, so she flipped to the page she was listed on.

"_Regina, also known as The Evil Queen_

_Power of Magic: Moderate-High_

_Knowledge of Magic: High"_

The book dropped out of Emma's hands as her mouth fell open. She was more powerful than Regina? That couldn't be. Regina casted the curse that landed everyone here. It seemed preposterous.

"Is this a joke, Gold?!" Emma asked, angrily.

"No need to be Hostile, Miss Swan. And no, It's not a joke. Everything in this book is entirely true Rumplestilskin smiled at her. Magic or not, she was a violent woman.

"Now what, Gold?" Emma asked. His book helped her learn a bit about where her magic came from, but nothing about how to use it.

"I'm afraid I do not know. Maybe Blue could help you?" Rumplestilskin asked.

Emma truly did not want to ask The Blue Fairy what to do, but what were her other options. It wasn't like Emma had the option of a wand and some fairy dust to solve her issues. Being a fairy would be so much easier in that sense. Or even being a dark magic user. If it wasn't for the whole "dark, evil" thing.

"Bye," Emma said, simply while letting herself out of the shop.

* * *

Where would she go? No one in this town knew about magic more than Rumplestilskin. But maybe she didn't need to talk about magic. Maybe her questions were on true love, and who better to ask then her own parents. She let herself into the sun colored bug. On her way home she thought about what she should try to do. What might be easy? Maybe try fireballs, like the ones Regina was so fond of using? Or maybe not, that probably wasn't something anyone in Storybrooke would be a fan of her doing. If Regina's 'thing' was fire, maybe Emma could have a thing. What did Emma want to associate herself with? An element seemed easy enough. Water? Ice? Wind?

She liked the idea of water. The water-benders were her favorite when she watched Avatar with Henry. That was the next thing she wanted to learn how to do. She'd go out the pier and try to manipulate the water.

But first she wanted her parents' side of the story when David kissed her and she woke up. Emma's parents had told her about everything else, but the kiss seemed too much like Disney. Too perfect. But it might help her figure out her abilities.

She walked up to the door of the loft and almost hesitated before walking in. This was her home. But it never truly felt like such. When she was staying with Mary-Margaret she was a visitor. A guest. But when the curse was broken, she was a grown woman living with her parents.

But this was her home. Her parents made sure of that.

"Mary Ma-Snow, David, I'm home! Can we talk?" Emma still had trouble calling her mother by her actual name. 'Mom' and 'Dad' were even more of a stretch. Her parents strolled into the kitchen hand in hand.

"What's up, Em?" David asked.

Emma took a deep breath: "I've avoided this for so long, but will you tell me the most ridiculous, cliché part of your story?"

Snow rolled her eyes and swatted at Emma's arm, playing to be offended, even though she knew it was true. For someone like Emma her story was truly ridiculous. Entirely True, but ridiculous nonetheless.

"David, I believe this one's on you. Start with the endless forest," Mary-Margaret suggested softly.

"Well Emma, I was informed that your mother had been put under a sleeping curse. I wasn't with her, but the dwarves were. I needed to be with her. So I set off on a journey to see her. I was in the forest when I released I hadn't gone anywhere. I had moved, but I was in the same place. After I realized I was stuck here, our good ol' friend Rumplestilskin showed up. He told me there was no way I could get out, and then he stole my ring. The one that now lives on your mother's finger. He enchanted it and told me the only way for me to get it back was for me to lodge an egg- the one you tried to get back just before the curse broke- into a dragon's stomach. I did so, but that's a story for another day. I went back to Rumplestilskin, and he gave me the ring, which he enchanted to allow me to find Snow. When I got there, the Dwarves had just put her into the glass coffin. It was awful for me, for the dwarves too, I assume. They open up the coffin, so I could say goodbye. I kissed her, a surge of energy through the land, like when you broke the curse, and she woke up. It was magical. Literally, and metaphorically. I proposed with the ring and the rest is history," David smiled at his wife and daughter.

"I love when you tell that story, Charming," Snow said playfully, flirting with her husband.

Emma sighed, "Get a room, guys, geez."

Her parents smiled at each other, and then to Emma.

"Why'd you wanna know, sweetie? You always avoided that chapter of the book," Mary Margaret/Snow asked her daughter.

"I'm just trying to figure out this magic thing. I read in a book that only the children of people whose true love's been tested through the kiss can get magical abilities. Who better to ask about true love than you two?" Emma knew her parents weren't a fan of her experimenting with magic, but she hoped they'd forget about their prejudices in order to let Emma help her family.

David raised his eyebrows, looking worried.

"It's okay, David. I'm not Regina, I'm not Cora, I'm not Gold. I'm Emma Swan. And the only reason I have magic is because you two love each other and have awful luck. Or great luck, depending on how you look at it. Whatever."

Snow and David looked at each other. They both knew Emma was a capable grown woman, but they couldn't help being worried. Emma waved goodbye to her parents. There was one last person on her last of people to talk to in order to figure out her magic. If she didn't get anyone at this last stop, she truly was on her own in order to figure this out.

* * *

The person Emma wanted to talk to was still living at the bed and breakfast, so she stopped in the diner to get herself a coffee to go.

Emma was about to knock on the door of her favorite character as a child. Of all people she now knew or called a friend, this was almost the weirdest. The whole parent situation was slightly weirder. But she was about to knock on the door of _Tinkerbell._ Tinkerbell didn't have another name Emma could call her by so Emma just had to get over herself.

She knocked on the door only twice before Tink swung the door open.

"Oh, hi, Emma, what's up?" Tink asked cheerfully.

"This may sound weird, but I have a Magic related question for you. Rumplestilskin and Regina weren't much help, and you were my next pick."

"Okay?" Tinkerbell said warily.

"I'm trying to figure out my magic and Regina and Gold can't help because the types of magic are entirely different. I know that fairy magic is different from everything else. But you know about both magic, and from what I've heard, you know a decent amount about Magic," Emma hoped Tink would be willing to help.

"I'll help you," Tink nodded. "Maybe Blue will gain more trust in my abilities. But if this works, tell Blue I helped you."

Emma nodded and agreed to her requirements. Tink grabbed a jacket from a hook on the inside of the door and led Emma away from the bed and breakfast. Just in case anything went wrong. Tink was well aware of how powerful Emma was, she had sensed it from the moment they met in Neverland. They went out onto the beach. There was no one there, especially at this time of year.

"Alright, Emma. The only way this'll work is if you believe in yourself, and your abilities, and the cause you're doing this for," Tinkerbell waited for Emma's nod before she continued. "We'll start relatively easy. Turn that pile of sand into a sand castle."

Emma thought of a picture of a sandcastle Henry had once shown her. You could go inside it; there was a whole room inside. She then thought of the boring sand pile once again. And the sandcastle again.

Tinkerbell shook Emma's shoulder. "Uh, Emma, are you sure you need my help?" She pointed to the gigantic sand castle that had formed from the pile of sands.

How had that happened? Emma could never get her magic to work this effectively. Whenever she got magic to work well, it was because she was working with Regina. Or when her emotions were overruling her brain, but this time, neither was the case.

"To be honest I don't know where that came from, Tink," Emma said softly.

"Well whatever you did it worked. Try something else. Try whatever you want," Tink suggested.

This was Emma's chance to be a water bender. Like Katara, or the girl in the new avatar spinoff, Korra. She thought of the ocean that roared in front of her. Emma lifted her hand and looked to the water. When she looked down again she saw water levitating above her hand, in the form of a ball.

Henry would be impressed by this.

"I think you've figured this out on your own, Emma, but would you please still tell Blue I helped?" Tinkerbell asked.

"Of course,Tink!"

Emma and the fairy went their separate ways. Emma sat in the bug, thinking about what she had just done. She would have to practice a bit more before she could actually help anyone, but for now she had a few magic tricks up her sleeve.


	4. weird

**I was thinking about how weird being in Storybrooke must be for Henry, so this drabble is to show a bit of his inner monologue trying to figure everything out.**

**Rating: K**

**I'm never going to stop reminding you: bu S**

This town is _weird_.

Everyone acts like they know me. The lady in the diner saying I had a "cinnamon face" when I asked how she knew I liked cinnamon on my hot cocoa. The mayor said my mom told her I was good at English. Mary Margaret knew I liked to read because my mom told her so. People are saying hello to me on the streets. When did my mom have a chance to talk to all these people?

This town is _weird_.

Mary Margaret doesn't seem like the type to end up in jail. Trust me, I've been around plenty of people who've done time. And frankly, Mary Margaret doesn't seem like the type. As awful as it sounds, it seems more likely for my mom to go to jail than her, and my mom only went there because my dad is a total D-Bag. Also, what kind of crime in banditry? Is that even a real thing?

This town is _weird_.

Why did the mayor want to meet me in the first place? She must have more important things to do than meet some kid whose visiting with his mom. And I saw her in that diner: she didn't seem clumsy, yet she still dropped that plate. She didn't even pick it up, she just stared right at me, and my mom. Stared at me like she knew me. Everyone stared at me like they knew me.

The lady at the diner. Mom's friends Mary Margaret and David. The Mayor. Even Mom's client, Killian. But I don't know them.

This town is _weird_.

Why did Mom leave me with a lady in the diner? If she knew any of these people well enough for them to 'babysit me' (which is not required whatsoever) why didn't I know that she ever lived here. She's just acting so weird. She has this weird paternal thing with David, and the way she says Killian's name sounds unnatural. I have so many questions, and I have a feeling I'm not going to get a solid answer on any of them.

_ d._


	5. wonderland

**Prompt from jokermask18: Why Jefferson hates Wonderland**

**Rating: K+  
And always, prompts are always welcome**

* * *

"Grace, Mommy and I are going to be gone for a few days, okay sweetie?" Jefferson asked his young daughter.

"The family that lives down the road will check up on you, got it?" Jefferson's wife and Gracie's mother confirmed.

Jefferson and Anna were hesitant to leave their six year old daughter alone, but they had to go to Wonderland. Trips to other lands to complete favors were their main income, and Anna was going because the only thing he hated more than leaving his daughter, was leaving his wife. When they got married, he promised Anna's father that he would never leave her, so he didn't.

If it were safer, Jefferson would bring Grace. She would love the aesthetics of wonderland. Bright colors, out of proportion everything. It would be a dream come true for her. But still, whenever she begged to go with them, he had to say no. It wasn't safe, for anyone really, but especially for his five year old daughter.

"See you later, alligator!" Jefferson began the way he and his daughter said goodbye.

"In a while, crocodile," Grace laughed and wrapped her arms around Jefferson's neck.

They said their goodbyes, and Jefferson promised he'd be home by seven days' time. He knew it was stupid to promise something like that, but he didn't have an option. He just hoped that they would both get home safely to their daughter.

Jefferson and Anna walked out the door of the cottage, knowing if they even looked back slightly, they wouldn't be able to leave. Jefferson and Anna walked almost a mile to a clearing in the woods. Jefferson asked Anna to look around make sure no one with in sight, or even earshot.

They were clear.

Jefferson pulled a black oversized top hat with a sash around the brim from his bag. He checked the surroundings once more before sending the hat into a spin. Anna grabbed Jefferson's hand and looked him in the eye.

"Two in?" Jefferson began.

"Two out," Anna finished the statement for him. She knew the rules by now. Long ago they had established should something happen, they would find someone to come with them back to Grace. They could never leave Grace entirely parentless.

They counted to three together before jumping into the dark abyss that was the top hat. Jefferson provided cushion atop the polished stone floor when they landed for Anna. They didn't want to waste time, so they found the door they needed. A looking glass. The door to Wonderland. They would be greeted by the hookah smoking caterpillar and neon flowers. The whimsy of the realm only could distract briefly from the sinking feeling that this wouldn't go well. Once a month, Queen Regina paid Jefferson to check on the Queen of Hearts. He was instructed not to talk to her, or go too near. If rumors of the Queen of Hearts were true, she wouldn't hesitate to lop off their heads. They were paid to listen to rumors and ask around about what she had done recently.

Anna always seemed to remember who to ask about rumors. She was better at this part than Jefferson, but they both had their strengths. Anna listened, Jefferson watched.

They climbed up a hill, where Jefferson retrieved his spyglass from the bag he kept his hat in. This hill was the best place to look over wonderland. You could just barely see the Red Queen's castle and it had a good view of the Queen of Heart's courtyard. The Queen of Hearts wasn't on the throne she as she usually was. Not once when they came to Wonderland was she not of her oversized throne. She hardly ever moved, her servants did everything. Spoke for her, fed her, guarded her.

"Anna, something's not right," Jefferson whispered.

She looked toward him and nodded. Wonderland felt off to both of them. It was sadder than It usually was. They never were bumping into other people when they spent time in Wonderland, but this time around, they had seen only one person, and they didn't look in the mood to talk. Anna had tried to stop him, but he just kept walking.

"Well, m'lady," Jefferson began, joking with his wife. "I think our work here is done. There's no one to talk to and nothing has changed. I'll just tell Regina that the Queen of Hearts wasn't there."

Anna nodded and they turned around to begin walking back down a hill.

"The reason I'm not down there is because I'm with you two!"

It was the Queen of Hearts.

This was bad. This was really bad. They knew that she was a ruthless killer. She would probably kill them both. No. Gracie was at home, waiting for them.

He would waste time, allowing them to figure out how to get away. "H-How'd you find us, your majesty."

"Oh, naive Hatter. I've been aware of your little 'visits' the whole time. Only recently did I learn of your intentions of coming to Wonderland. And I'm not happy about it. Therefore, I'll take your hearts and your heads."

Anna looked to Jefferson, whose gaze hadn't left the Queen of Hearts.

"Spare him. Please. Kill me, let him go." Anna broke the silence.

"Anna, no! Grace needs you, you can't. "

"If you insist, darling." The Queen reached her hand into Anna's chest and pulled out a glowing heart.

She squeezed the beating heart slowly, painstakingly. Anna began to drop to the ground. She kissed Jefferson one last time.

"Our daughter needs you more. She needs a father."

"Anna, she needs a mother too," Jefferson felt tears washing down his face now.

Jefferson's wife smiled one last time before she crumpled to the ground. He didn't know what to do now. His wife was gone. His best friend was gone. Grace's mother was gone. Anna was gone.


	6. dreams

**Rating: K**

**Emma dreams of place that seems eerily familiar**

My dreams are haunted by princes and princesses and knights and sorcerers. Fairytale characters come together like the ink ran together in a story book. Mulan and Sleeping Beauty. Prince Charming and Snow White. Robin Hood and the Evil Queen.

It didn't make sense. But what made less sense is the ways they said my name. They never said it negatively, but it was always clad in a silent sadness.

Snow White was never a movie I liked much, but this Snow White, she stands up for herself, and defends her friends. When she walks my dreams, I can't help but feel a sense of familiarity. Like déjà vu.

Every once in a while I'll see Henry's father, Neal. He usually walks with a woman named Belle.

The dreams Neal haunt are the worst. All I can think of when I see him is when I was just eighteen, and being arrested for his stolen watches. I force myself to wake up from those dreams.

As absurdly cliché as it sounds, the good dreams, the ones without Neal, the ones with Snow White and Prince Charming and Red Riding Hood, I love them. I never had princess fantasies growing up, but these dreams make me feel like a little, uncorrupted girl.

I haven't had one of those dreams in like those in weeks. The last one ended with a cloud of opaque green smog engulfing the land. That was it. I don't know what happened after the cloud of green smoke, and even though I shouldn't care what happened to them, I do.

I don't know why I care about these storybook characters that walk my dreams.

I don't know.


	7. Ideas

**Summary: Despite being quite drunk, Emma has a good idea.**

**Rating: K+-T for language and drinking**

**Whoops sorry I was a bit blocked so this one's short and the next one'll be short-ish**

* * *

"You know what? You and David should get _married_!" Emma suggested to Mary Margaret.

Emma had taken her mother out for dinner and drinks to celebrate the fact she no longer had a living human inside of her, as well as give her father a chance to be alone with the baby.

"Emma, honey, we _are _married," Snow told her more than slightly buzzed daughter.

"Well, yeah, Prince Charming and Snow White are married, but David Nolan and Mary Margaret Blanchard are legally not married!" Emma said, as if it was obvious.

It wasn't an awful idea. And maybe it'd be nice to legally be Mary Margaret Nolan in the Land without Magic.

"Yeah, you know what Em? That's not an awful idea! Nothing big of course," Mary Margaret had already started planning in her head.

"Nothing big my ass! You want the whole town there, subconsciously," even though Snow would never admit it, Emma was right about that one. She shrugged, not committing to anything.

"You know what? I bet Blue's ordained! She's a nun here, right?" Emma was starting to slur her words, but she got her point across.

"I'll call David for you! Tell him to propose!" She pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket.

Mary Margaret retrieved the phone from Emma. Emma calling _anyone _in this state was a bad plan. The three (or four, if Henry joined) would discuss this in the morning.

"Alright Em, I'm bringing you home. I don't think the Sheriff should be walking around a bar drunk." Snow suggested.

"Good idea, Ma," Emma said, probably unaware she had just referred to Mary Margaret as her mother, whom didn't care that she was drunk while saying so. It still counted.

They paid for their drinks, and proceeded to the yellow bug. They drove in silence. Mary Margaret didn't think she could deal with her daughter's drunken rambles any longer. Good thing it sounded like she was asleep. Emma snored a bit, like David, but quieter. Every so often she looked over, observing similarities between her and David, or her and Henry, or even Emma and herself. Her own eye color, but David's eye shape. Hair a bit lighter than David's, and a forehead near identical. Her daughter could've been her doppelganger, with her chin and cheekbones, especially if her hair had been far darker. Reflecting like this sent Snow through a whirlwind of emotions. Regret. Joy. Happiness. Anger. And everything in between.

Once Snow pulled up to the apartment complex, she left Emma in the car. She didn't want to wake her up, but there was no way she'd ever carry her upstairs on her own.

"Charming?" She whispered.

"How was your night out?" David countered. By the looks of it Henry and Leo were asleep.

"Good, I guess. Emma's in the car, passed out. I need your help bringing her up. I'll watch the boys."

"Deal," He smiled. David gave his wife a peck on the cheek and walked down to the car.

Before he got down to the car he wasn't quite sure what to expect. A mellow, asleep Emma was a nice surprise. He opened the passenger door and lifted her out of the car seat. David relished moments like these. He didn't get to carry his daughter in his arms often. He didn't care about the circumstances.

He swept the blonde locks out of her closed eyes. Without thinking twice, he kissed her forehead. It felt natural. Like what he would've done if she had grown up with him. But that tradition would just have to start now.

He pushed the door open and laid his daughter on the couch. Bringing her up to the loft didn't seem like the best idea. Instead, they brought down some blankets and tucked her in.

"Goodnight, Emma," Snow whispered as she shut off the light.

The couple smiled to each other and determined they themselves should hit the hay.

* * *

They slept soundly until the heard little Leo crying. He was a baby, after all. Not long after Leo woke, Snow heard Emma stirring. She probably had a massive hangover.

"Why the hell are babies so loud…? C'mon Leo, give your big sister a break," Emma moaned from the couch. "I need to ask Regina if there's either a magic way to cure a hangover or a magic way to shut a baby up…"

Snow heard that comment, "Don't you dare, Emma!"

"Kidding," Emma said. But was she really? She definitely was not kidding about the hangover part.

"You'd better be," David said, trying to be stern, but still found himself breaking into a smirk.

"D'you remember anything, Em, especially an idea you had?" Snow hinted, not wanting to bring up the subject of marriage.

"Well, David, I had an idea last night, keep in mind I was a bit tipsy," Snow glared at her for her gage of her drunkenness level. "That maybe you and Mary Margaret should get married."

"Emma, we are married," David was confused by this, much like his wife.

"Hey can you explain the rest, I really need an aspirin for this headache," Emma asked of her mother without waiting for a response.

Snow nodded; despite the fact her daughter was long gone.

"Emma thinks Mary Margaret Blanchard and David Nolan should get married. Just in case we can ever actually leave Storybrooke."

"But we're David—oh! That's not a bad idea actually. Nothing big of course…" David ended his train of thought much like his wife had the night before.

He retrieved a ring from her finger. "Mary Margaret Blanchard, will you do me the honor of being my bride?"

Emma had snuck back into the room now, and was watching her parents in silence.

"Of course, David Nolan. Of course I will."

David stood back up and kissed Snow passionately. They looked to the door, seeing Emma standing there.

"Have you been there the whole time?"


	8. Lessons

**On that last chapter: I had been working on it, but when Ginny and Josh got hitched, I just couldn't help myself from publishing it. And for those who've seen The Jolly Roger (Spoiler) I totally called Emma being more powerful than Regina! Called it!**

**Rating: K (super fluffy)**

Today was a day of lessons learned. Not metaphoric lessons. Actual lessons: Etiquette and dancing from her mother, and sword fighting and horseback riding with her father. The last two may be saved for another day, though.

None of it was Emma's idea, but she was participating. Her parents thought it necessary that she know these things for some reason. There weren't exactly many balls or opportunities to go horseback riding in Storybrooke, so why did she need to learn? She didn't really, but she wanted to make her parents happy. It would be a little while before they could teach little Leo any of these things.

I guess they were thinking if they ended up in the Enchanted Forest again someday, it'd be helpful. Sword fighting would helpful in Storybrooke as well. Magic wasn't always entirely reliable, and she needed something to fall back on.

"What's first?" Emma asked, and as reluctant as she was about all of this, she was a bit excited.

"Sword fighting with your father, then dancing with me, then horseback riding and etiquette if we have time," Mary Margaret announced.

Emma was dreading the second and fourth items on the list. Emma was a truly terrible dancer, and her manners weren't exactly up to par with the standards of royalty. Sword fighting, she was already okay at. Horseback riding couldn't be _too _bad. She liked animals well enough.

_I wonder if when I broke the first curse the animals got their memories back… _Emma thought to herself. It was a trivial thought, of course, but she wondered if any of the horses that once served royalty got all conceited, or something.

"Well, Emma, off we go!"

David drove her to a park nearest their house. In Storybrooke, two adults swordfighting was nothing out of the ordinary, but nothing out of the ordinary in Storybrooke was absolutely absurd everywhere else. Emma didn't think that she'd ever truly get used to it.

David parked and helped Emma out of the truck. He nearly always insisted on opening her door and holding her hand as she hopped out of the truck. It didn't go against his character, though. He truly was charming.

They walked to a spot in the park that children didn't roam, and held no appeal for picnics. They didn't want to hurt anyone while practicing.

David handed her a sword. She hadn't used this one before. The ones she had used prior weren't accessible to her, seeing as her father was using one, and one was buried 6 feet under.

She needed her own sword eventually, anyways.

Lessons flew by, and there was only technique David truly needed to teach her. She'd handled a sword plenty of times before, but there was still stuff she wasn't good at. Her stance needed work, and she needed to focus on using her sword to her advantage, as opposed to throwing it down and punching her opponent when things weren't going her way. She hadn't done that to David, of course, but she had to plenty of other people. It was a signature move, if you will. But it was "bad form" in the words of Hook.

"Well, Emma," David began, looking down at his watch. "I've got to bring you to your mother before she has our heads."

Emma laughed, "_Our_ heads? You're driving, this one's on you, David."

David smiled, and raced to the passenger side of the truck to open up the door.

They drive in almost silence. Not an uncomfortable silence though. The type of silence that comes about when you've already talked so much you're out of things to talk about.

Mary Margaret comes out to meet them at the truck, smiling at them.

"How was sword fighting, Emma?" She asked.

It went well, but now for something I'm bound to fail at…" Emma trailed off, hoping her mother wouldn't interject encouraging statements.

She did, of course. What else would she expect out of her mother?

Emma opened up the door to the apartment to find a pair of shoes right in front of the door. After shooting a puzzled look at her mother, she pans her gaze up to a chair right behind the pair of heels. A dress. Not just any dress. A gown sat on that chair.

"Are you serious, Mary Margaret? A gown? Where did you even get that?" Emma asked.

"Well, ball gowns aren't really a staple here, but I found it in Gold's shop. It was mine actually. We're about the same size; do you want to try it on?"

"Not particularly," Emma stated, hoping not to upset her mother. But she really did not want to wear a ball gown.

"If you try it on and let me take a picture, I won't make you learn how to dance for at least another two months!" Snow knew that this was a deal her daughter couldn't pass up.

"Fine, but the picture doesn't leave this house." Emma was a bit of a bargainer herself, but even if Mary Margaret refused the deal, she would still take it.

"Can I show it to Red? She was supposed to be you godmother, after all," Snow bartered.

"As long as she's in the apartment," Emma replied.

The savior smiled to her mother and lifted the dress of the chair and the shoes of the floor.

Emma wiggled into the purple dress, that from the look of Henry's book, it was the one her mother had worn to Ashley and Sean's—No, Ella and Thomas's wedding in the enchanted forest. It was light purple, and the bodice was covered in sparkles.

_How did girls in the Enchanted Forest deal with corsets? _Emma wondered to herself.

Her mother had been right, it did fit. It was tight, of course, but that was expected, considering the corset.

"Mary Margaret? Will you zip me? Or lace me up? Or whatever the hell this dress has?"

Emma could practically hear a squeal through the door. If she was in her mother's shoes, she too would be excited to see her daughter in a dress she once wore.

Snow opened up the door to the bathroom slowly, wanting to be surprised as possible.

"Emma, you just, you look so beautiful right now, and always of course!" Emma's mother gasped.

Mary Margaret walked around the bathroom to face her daughter. Without being aware of it, a tear escaped Snow's eye.

"Why are you crying?"

"I was crying? Oh, never mind. It's just that I didn't get to see you in a ball gown until you were thirty, Emma. If you'd grown up with me you'd have had you first proper gown by the time you were five, and dozens after that." Snow had stopped crying, but she was still upset.

"You say that all like it's such a bad thing, but it's not! If you hadn't put me in that wardrobe, so many things would be different! We wouldn't have Henry, for starters, and Regina would still be the evil queen, and who knows what else!"

"Look who's the optimist now, Emma," Snow laughed.

"Somebody's got to do it. Now let's go take those photos."

Snow posed Emma in front of the window and took far too many pictures for Emma's liking. Blackmail worthy photos, even.

"Mom," she began. Where did that come from? "Can I _please _take this off? It's cutting off my airflow?

Snow didn't answer right away, but when she did, it was almost a whisper, "You called me Mom?"

"That is what you are, aren't you? My mother," Emma replied.

Snow smiled at her, "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for you to call me that."

"I wouldn't get too use to it, it's still kind of weird for me."

"Just having you call me that once is all I wanted," Mary Margaret was all choked up now. "Can I call Ruby to show her these now?"


	9. pictures

**Rating: K+ (brief mentions of abuse)**

**Summary: Snow is putting together a scrapbook and asks Emma if she has any pictures from her younger years.4**

* * *

Pictures. The way in which we capture memories. First won little league game. First day of school. Getting third place in your fourth grade spelling bee. Going to a middle school dance with your friends. Eighth grade graduation. Scoring the winning goal at the final soccer game of the season. Prom. Graduating high school.

All the moments Snow White missed with her daughter. All she wanted was to see a few photos. See what her little girl looked like when she was a child. See the things that made her little girl happy.

But Emma didn't have many pictures. Her old social worker had a few, and she certainly didn't want to ask her foster families for any. What would she say? They wouldn't even believe the best lies she could come up with.

But she did have a few, and when her mother would ask to see them, she would be reluctant to bring them out of hiding, but she would.

"Emma? Do you have any pictures from you're childhood? I want to document and scrapbook Leo growing up, but I figured maybe I could add in a page or two for you and a couple for Henry?" Snow asked, feeling a pain of guilt, similar to one she felt nearly every day.

"Uh, yeah, I'll just have to look," Emma responded.

Her mother would get a kick out of these. Her baby self looked a bit like Leo, and her preteen self was practically female Henry.

Not all of those photos were happy, though. Her social worker had taken some of her crying, to make her look like a pity case to potential foster parents.

Some were also photos of bruises and cuts that were used as police evidence.

Her mother would take those ones hardest of all. To be honest, Emma wanted too sift through the photos, only including the happier ones. But Mary Margaret wanted them all. So Emma Swan would give them all to her.

"Here you go. Make of these what you will. I think that there's a couple you'll really like," Emma smiled, thinking of the picture from the year she dressed up as a nameless princess.

But she also thought back to the ones with her body and clad in bruises and the ones where tears flow from her eyes.

"Thank you, Em. Will you get some pictures of Henry? If you don't have any, I'm sure Regina does."

Emma nodded. She grabbed her jacket and headed out the door, hoping to duck away from her Mother's reaction to the more gruesome photos.

* * *

Snow sifted through the photos, but some caught her eye. The nice ones with Emma smiling were not the ones that held her gaze. The pictures that captured Emma's tears and bruises were the ones she lingered on. She couldn't use them in her scrapbook, but those photos were just as important. She needed to show them to David. He was her father, and he needed to know about Emma's childhood. But not now. Snow needed to keep these photographs to herself. And even if she did see reason to show these to David, or anyone else for that matter, Snow didn't believe Emma would appreciate it.

One photo that would certainly make it into the book was Emma when she was four or five. Her blond hair was a bit scraggly, but a bubblegum pink headband kept it off of her face. She wore a full pink dress, this world's sorry excuse for a ball gown. Her face was lit up with a bright smile, clearly excited about her outfit.

Memories. Snow vowed to make as many as she could. With Emma, with Leo, with Henry. She wanted to fill this book with happy things. Things they could look back on and smile.


	10. engaged

**Not even sorry for all the Emma/ Snow these past few chapters. Maybe some Daddy Charming next? Also, leave prompts, 'cause I'm running out.**

**Prompt from guest: **Could you pretty please do a "once shot" where snow finds out emma was engaged to a flying monkey

**I changed that a bit, and made it more of Snow confronting Emma about it**

**Rating: K+ (Emma swears)**

* * *

"David told me you were engaged?" Snow asks her daughter, trying to get her side of the story.

"I never said yes," Emma replied, hoping to leave it at that.

But her mother wasn't satisfied with that. "But you had your heart broken. Again. That can't be terribly great."

"No, Mary Margaret. It sucks. Couldn't I have found feelings for someone not from damn Fairytale Land. Or someone who wasn't blatantly using me or was planning on dumping me because of all of this bullshit savior stuff," Emma hadn't meant to lose her temper. But then again, she hadn't meant any of this.

"Emma, Emma, I'm sorry if I upset you, I just, I want to know what it was like for you in New York."

"It was great in New York. When Hook got me to drink that damn memory potion, I was expecting some sort of drug. But in a way, what it was, it was so much worse. Not that I'm not happy to be with my family, and be where I spent the best 2 years of my life until New York, but I never asked for any of this. This is the exact opposite of what I wanted."

Looking at her mother, Emma noticed that she was looking at her feet. Almost retreating back to Mary Margaret Blanchard, school teacher, as opposed to Badass Snow White.

"Mary Margaret, I'm sorry. That's not what I meant, I just meant—"

Snow cut her off, "No, I understand, Em, you just think that you and Henry are better equipped to life in the real world."

Emma sunk to the ground. Not sure of how to respond to that. It was true. But her and Henry's lineage said nothing but what was on the other side. As much as it would take getting used to, even if Henry hadn't gotten his memories, she couldn't keep him from his family. But she didn't have to worry about that anymore.

She wasn't his only parent, guardian anymore. He had the entire town, practically. Not just her, and Regina, and the Charmings anymore.

Emma stood back up to face her mother.

"No, we're better off here. With you guys."

She didn't entirely believe that, considering there were flying monkeys going around and attacking citizens, and she was pretty sure that Storybrooke had never gone more than solid a month of peace. But hopefully once the green bitch had gone down, Storybrooke would be treated to a while of nobody trying to kill anybody else.


End file.
